[AD&D Gamebook] The Sorcerer's Crown (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 2 of 3)

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

The three of us slip into the sanctuary behind the chair. No one can see us until we "stand erect" to confront Arno.

So much for the plan to get the drop on them. We could have, y'know, cast a spell from hiding but nope! We decide to "stand erect" [exact quote for the amusement of 13-year-old boys everywhere] and ruin the element of surprise.

Also apparently Oram-the-not-yet-numbered’s archclerical throne is sadly short.

Pazuzu points his finger at Dalris….
… it's as if she were being bathed in warmth and a thousand sensual pleasures.
She lowers her sword and begins to walk languidly, even seductively, toward the monster called Pazuzu.

Raise your hand if you had "super sexy scene" on your bingo card for this gamebook with a target audience of young teenagers.

Because, YOWZA!

"Yes, Delling, please 'do something'," Arno sneers.
These words tear us away from our "helpless fascination"...

In other words: stop staring at sexy Dalris with your mouth open, Carr, and get your head in the game.

(29) if we prepared Armor or Protection from Evil.

In the world of this gamebook, both Armor and Protection from Evil can save us from whatever Arno is doing.

First: Armor? LOL no. By this gamebook's own description, Armor "hardens [the] spellcaster's skin against most cutting and penetrating weapons." Unless Arno is casting a spell called Sword Slash or Dagger Thrust, Armor ain't going to do squat.

Second: Protection from Evil? "Helps to guard [the] spellcaster from evil forces." This gamebook indulges in the misunderstanding that an evil-aligned person is the same as an otherworldly, inherently Evil creature. By the AD&D rules, Protection from Evil only helps against "creatures of an enchanted or conjured nature such as aerial servants, demons, devils, djinn, efreet, elementals, imps, invisible stalker, night hags, quasits, salamanders, water weirds, wind walkers, and xorn. Summoned animals or monsters are similarly hedged [out]." Arno is none of those things, so by AD&D rules, Protection from Evil does nothing against his spells (specifically, it wouldn’t provide us with a +2 to saving throws).

But the gamebook is "without complicated rules to slow down the story" -- unlike AD&D. So it can have these spells work however it wants.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Also, I was under the impression we'd cast Protection from Evil on ourselves, not randomly cast it on Dalris in case she's the target of a spell while she holds her 50 paladins in check.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Also, I was under the impression we'd cast Protection from Evil on ourselves, not randomly cast it on Dalris

Carr did cast Protection from Evil on himself.

If he had cast it on Dalris, she wouldn’t have done the sexy dance for Pazuzu, because (at least in this gamebook), PfE would’ve completely immunized her against the hostile effect.

Unless… well, you’ll see.

But what happened here was:

1. The party uses the secret door to enter the sanctuary.
2. They “stand erect” and ruin their surprise round.
3. Arno wins initiative but feels sorry for us wasting our surprise round, so he spends his turn monologuing. [Then also starts casting a spell because as a villain, he can do more than one thing in a round.]
4. Pazuzu is a demon so it thinks “screw this playing fair” and points its finger at Dalris.
5. Dalris fails her save and gets all sexy.
6. Garn tries to grab Dalris but fails his grapple check.
7. Carr finally gets a chance to cast the spell he was already prepared to cast before the party even opened the secret door. This is going to be Protection from Evil on himself.

 

[Joshua Randall]

29

We shout to Garn that Arno is casting a spell, because this COMPLETELY OBVIOUS statement will surely be news to everyone.

Garn lunges for Dalris, grabs her, spins her around, and slaps her quickly which breaks Pazuzu's mental control. (It was just that easy.)

"What the hell are you doing?" Dalris demands as Garn drags her back to the secret door.

"Trust me," he responds. Then, to us, Garn says, "Let's go, Carr! We can't fight them with spells or weapons. They're much too powerful."

Our interior monologue informs us that Garn's advice is "dismal but wise", and that if we hadn't protected ourselves before we entered the sanctuary, Arno's spell would be working right now. Guarded by our defensive spell, we back away towards the door.

"Get them!" Arno shouts to the congregation of 100 paladins, who have been standing around doing nothing, apparently.

We have time to use one more spell to seal the sanctuary door as we retreat:
(40) Hold Portal or
(168) Wizard Lock.

Alternatively we can commit suicide by not casting a spell at (135).
[Seriously, book? We'd have to be super dumb to choose this option.]

 

[Joshua Randall]

We remember from our spell list that Hold Portal only secures doors against "nonmagical beings", while Wizard Lock "seals doors and other openings even from other magic-users."

Arno is certainly a magic-user. We're not sure if Pazuzu is, but a demon lord is not-NONmagical. So we had better use the more powerful spell here.

168

We know that Hold Portal might prevent humans from opening the door, but we're not sure about its strength against Pazuzu. Arno and "his hideous ally" step towards us, but we back through the secret door and slam it in their face.

"Dullen kustaff, ebirsund!" we mutter as we hold our palms outwards towards the door. It glows blue with a dweomer. There's a pounding from the other side. Garn cries for us to run before they break through.

We do so at (217).

---

217

Dalris urges us to "move your clumsy feet, Carr!" We hear pounding from behind us as Arno's paladins try to smash into the hidden corridor. We tumble through the hidden door into the alley, trip over Rufyl (who has become visible), explain to Garn that our familiar only looks like a red dragon, and wait while Dalris and Garn twist the bars to lock the panel in place.

Garn says we should split up and meet at his lodgings in "exactly" two hours. "It's at the corner of Wharf Road and Savenbridge, about a mile behind the Moonstar Tavern. You'll see a large gray stallion tethered in front of it."

But before we go…

---

I promised we could go back and see what happens if we carry the Sceptre of Bhukod into the cathedral. So let’s explore that path and then return to our “real” path.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

29

We shout to Garn that Arno is casting a spell, because this COMPLETELY OBVIOUS statement will surely be news to everyone.

Well, Arno is giving us actions back when we waste them, so maybe it's worth it...

Garn lunges for Dalris, grabs her, spins her around, and slaps her quickly which breaks Pazuzu's mental control. (It was just that easy.)

So, the lessson given to teenager boys is that if slapping your girlfriend is the best way to make her compliant and improve her behaviour. The 80s were really different...

"What the hell are you doing?" Dalris demands as Garn drags her back to the secret door.

"Trust me," he responds.

"What happens behind secret doors stays behind secret doors." he adds with a wink.

Then, to us, Garn says, "Let's go, Carr! We can't fight them with spells or weapons. They're much too powerful."

With Carr, they engage in contest of obvious statements? Because there is no new information that was acquired about this plan being stupid compared to the moment they decided to enact it.

We have time to use one more spell to seal the sanctuary door as we retreat:
(40) Hold Portal or
(168) Wizard Lock.

Let me guess, both of these spells are low level enough that they can be easily reversed by Arno, or vulnerable to a standard Dispel Magic?

Alternatively we can commit suicide by not casting a spell at (135).
[Seriously, book? We'd have to be super dumb to choose this option.]

Unless the nearest Pal is in position to open the door before we've finished our ritual casting of Wizard Lock?

 

[Joshua Randall]

So, the lessson given to teenager boys is that if slapping your girlfriend is the best way to make her compliant

Oh dear.

Let me guess, both of these spells are low level enough that they can be easily reversed by Arno, or vulnerable to a standard Dispel Magic?

AD&D PH p. 47: "The base chance for success of a dispel magic spell is 50%. For every level of experience of the character casting the dispel magic above that of the creature whose magic is to be dispelled [...] the base chance increases by 5%, so that if there are 10 levels of difference, there is a 100% chance. For every level below the experience level of the creature, the base chance is reduced by 2%."

Arno may have thought about using Dispel Magic, but then he'd have to know his own level, and Carr's level, and do math....

before we've finished our ritual casting of Wizard Lock?

Wizard Lock in AD&D had a casting time of 2 segments which is very fast. (Hold Portal was 1 segment.)

It did have the carve out that a magic-user of 4+ levels higher than the one casting the spell could bypass (though not automatically remove) the Wizard Lock. So apparently Arno does not outclass us by 4+ levels. I will note this for later.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Continuing the alternate timeline where we take the Sceptre of Bhukod with us into the cathedral.

199, redux

There is no way THE Carr Delling, descendant of an ARCHMAGE whose power filled the GODS THEMSELVES with fear, will wimp out just because our school-days rival Arno has a pet DEMON LORD.

[...]

Garn asks what we can do against “that creature”.

We pause, because we’re not sure any of our spells will work against this terrible enemy.

(112) if we have the Sceptre of Bhukod under our cloak, or
(88) to “try” a spell anyway.

In this alternative path we have the Sceptre of Bhukod, so…

---

112

"They're starting to search the cathedral," Dalris whispers, then asks what spell we're going to use.

"None!" [we] reply. "This is why Thayne and your father wanted us to take the sceptre. I doubt if any of my incantations could even scratch that creature in there. The sceptre may not, either, but I know it'll handle Arno, just as it did my uncle Beldon."

We “strip [oh dear] the stiff [oh dear] hollyphant hide from the gleaming wand [oh dear]. The triple pearls at its bulbous end [oh dear] flare instantly in the dim light."

Dalris opens the door and dives through. Garn follows her, tossing his fine leather cape over his shoulder to free his sword arm. We duck into the sanctuary after them, holding the Sceptre of Bhukod high above our head.

Someone yells that we're trying to kill Pazuzu.

Arno and Pazuzu whirl to face us. Our old rival seems unconcerned with Dalris and Garn, but he does "glower" at the relic in our hands.

"Your father's antique wand may have destroyed our teacher, Carr Delling, but it will not save you and your friends from the wrath of Pazuzu," Arno declares.

The monster's yellow eyes burn into ours, its beak parted in what we take to be a grin. Suddenly we realize that "the being called 'Pazuzu'" is trying to affect our mind. We must fight back with the power of polyhedral dice!

INT test.
(153) if 24 or higher;
(117) if less.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

“Your father's antique wand may have destroyed our teacher…”

Arno could not know this unless… did we BRAG about KILLING BELDON?

Suddenly we realize that "the being called 'Pazuzu'" is trying to affect our mind.

This is a lawyerly turn of phrase: the being called quote-unquote Pazuzu. Morris Simon leaves open the possibility that whatever is going on here does NOT involve the actual demon lord, actually named Pazuzu, who actually is Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms. As @Jfdlsjfd posited, maybe this creature is not actually actually Pazuzu, but something else. I’ll write more about Pazuzu’s various appellations later.

However, based on what happens here, we can rule out ventriloquism and a clever marionette.

 

[Joshua Randall]

117

On a failure, Pazuzu's "blast of psionic energy" is unaffected by the sceptre, and our last clear thought is that we prepared only for a magical confrontation. "Psionic battles require many more weapons and defenses than [we] could ever hope to deal with."

We collapse senselessly to the floor. The Sceptre of Bhukod rolls from our limp grasp towards Arno, but we will never know if it had any charges left or not. ✠

[Not counting this death because it’s not on our true path.]

---

153

On a success:

The crested monster's mental power is greater than any force [we've] ever met or studied. Pazuzu's psionic assault is so overwhelming that [we] feel as if each nerve cell in [our] brain is vibrating to disintegration. Yet somehow [we] manage to withstand the onslaught and clasp the Sceptre of Bhukod close to [our] chest. But still [we] just stand there.

Dalris tells us to snap out of it as she slaps us in the face. (It was just that easy to break Pazuzu’s mental control.)

We rub our stinging cheek and tell Dalris and Garn to get out of here because this is a magical duel now. [Eh? No it's not. Pazuzu is using psionics.] We'll rely on the sceptre.

Arno sneers that "Landor's brat" plans to use his wand, and is Pazuzu going to be intimidated by another man's rod?

We hold our sceptre high, letting its radiant white light flood the cathedral. The corrupted paladins shrink away from the light, falling to their knees to pray for deliverance.

"SILENCE, KNIGHTS OF TRUTH!" thunders Pazuzu in its metallic voice.

"Observe the power of Pazuzu, messenger of Lord Dyan and Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms!" shouts Arno.

The monster raises both hands, palms out, and twin rays of utter blackness project towards us. The dark energy envelops the gleaming triple knob of our sceptre, stifling it so completely that not even a glimmer escapes.

"See, Knights of Truth?" Arno gloats. "Landor's magic is nothing when confronted with the power of Pazuzu!"

Garn urges us to leave while we still can, and we reluctantly comply. This leads to the sections where we choose among Hold Portal vs. Wizard Lock (vs. stupidly neither), as before.